Chapter 4: Recovery

Shinji stood by his table with a bored look on his face. He did not expect extermination to go on this long. He had other stuff to do.

In front of him, the fight between the three Servants and Ghost continued.

Leonidas swung his lance down on Ghost. Ghost dodged. Fergus then came from the left of Leonidas attempting to strike while Ghost was focused on the lance swing. Saber anticipated this and, quickly taking control of Ghost's body, swerved to the right to dodge that attack. Coming up on Darius, Ghost, controlled by Saber's Damashii, jumped up and kicked Darius in the head, knocking him backwards while Ghost recoiled with yet another backflip. Darius, stunned for a moment, shook his head and roared.

The other two charged together. Dodging another of Fergus' attack, causing his drill sword to lodge in the ground, they stepped backwards a few steps.

Saber, we need to regroup and figure out how to manage this system of control. It is getting confusing.

"I know." Saber replied. "But for now, we need to get to Maestro, so I need you to follow my lead. Let me keep control for a little while until we get to him."

Shinji tapped his fingers on a hologram keyboard, inputting another attack command. The three enemy Servants glowed red.

"Here they come." Saber said, striking a defensive pose.

The three charged, and as they brought down their weapons to strike, Ghost leaped into the air. The strikes hit the back wall, causing the entire compound to shake. A huge cloud of dust erupted from the ground.

Shinji sneered.

Ghost landed and, looking behind his shoulder, peered into the cloud.

As the cloud cleared, it revealed the red firewalls, now fractured. Behind it stood Ex-Aid, in his Dangerous Zombie form, sparking with electricity and stained with blood. Around him, the mangled corpses of the police girls lay scattered, still twitching as if freshly slaughtered. Ex-Aid's armour evaporated around him, and he stood limp. Then he turned his head towards the cracked wall.

Shinji was taken aback in horror. Takeru and Saber were equally shocked.

"Sa… ber...

Ta… ke… ru…

Help… me…."

Then he fell to his knees and collapsed on the floor.

"Maestro!" Saber yelled.

"Emu!" Takeru yelled.

Ghost rushed through the cracked wall.

"Hu…Huh? Not bad." Shinji muttered.

As Ghost jumped over the limp body of Darius, it reanimated and roared to life.

"Get them!" Shinji yelled. However, his form was flickering, and so was the firewall. He looked around in confusion. Warning alerts were popping up everywhere.

Darius took one step, then froze.

Takeru, in his shock of seeing Emu, managed to take control of his body back from Saber. Saber obliged without complaint. He ran up to Emu and lifted up his lifeless body.

Around the complex, the firewall was disintegrating.

"What the hell's happening!?" Shinji cried.

"What's happening is obvious!" a girl's voice answered back. Shinji turned to the now broken window.

"Tohsaka!"

Riding a hoverbike was the pig-tailed girl from the lower floor, her headlights trained on Shinji.

"Saber!"

Takeru heard her and ran to the window, still carrying the body of Emu. He jumped out and landed on the hoverbike.

"You're not getting away!" Shinji yelled, as he fruitlessly tried to input more commands into the frozen keyboard.

The hoverbike zipped away into the night skyline of the city, leaving Shinji behind in the ruins of the compound.

Where… am I?

Emu found himself in the white classroom again. Like before, it was bare. He looked around

Am… I here again?

"Yes, you are." A voice replied, very much like his. Emu turned around. Standing in front of the blackboard was his own figure, smiling maliciously like before.

Why?

"You're always asking questions," the other Emu noted. "Welcome to the Moon Cell. The land of unanswered questions. The land of unanswered prayers. The land of the unavenged victims."

As he spoke, the corpses reappeared, materialising from orange mist like Bugsters. Emu looked around rapidly.

"You have experienced the ruthlessness of this war, the bloodthirst of those who fight it. And like us, you will grow to hate it."

Hate. Anger. Resentment. Those were what they embodied.

"You have already tasted our hatred. How much it burns. How much the restless souls of those defeated call for vengeance. Our anger will fuel you. That power we control; Destroy everything with it. Otherwise…"

Hands clawed at Emu's legs, dragging him to the floor.

"You will end up like us."

No!

Emu tried shaking the legs off, but they clung on tight, dragging him down further and further into the ground.

"Currently you are too weak. Your humanity constrains you. Become an emissary of revenge. Destroy this hellhole. Discard your compassion for the others. They do not deserve it. If you don't, you will never leave."

Emu tried to scream in fear, but hands muffled his mouth. He could only watch as they submersed him in the corpses. Then, everything went black.

Emu sat up on a bed, panting, sweat dripping down his body. He was in a dimly lit room with windows surrounding him exposing him to the outside world. He observed his surroundings, and then looked down at his body. It was covered in various black patches. Emu at first was scared that his body was deteriorating, but then he noticed that they were healing his body. He felt the wounds beneath them closing up as the pain diminished.

Code Casts?

He looked around again, then saw the pig-tailed girl sitting on a sofa typing into a hologram keyboard like the one Shinji was using, except it was red instead of blue. She noticed him looking at her and smiled.

"I see you recovered, but not fully."

Did she put these on me?

"Those weren't enough to heal you."

She got up and walked over to the bed.

This girl…

He recalled her from the bottom floor, helping him take the poor Chess club president to the infirmary. He took a longer look at her entire body. She was wearing a red jumper with a cross on the front and a black skirt.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Rin. A Magus who has lost her Servant. The only remaining former Master, and this floor's Resistance."

She held out her hand. Emu shook it.

"Emu Hojo."

"I know."

Saber materialised on a chair next to the bed.

"And then, I am Saber."

"I know that too."

Takeru materialised on another chair.

"And I am Tenkuji Takeru."

This Rin did not expect.

"Huh? Where did you come from?"

"I am a friend of Emu's. It is difficult to explain, but you can only see me now because I can make myself visible. I am supposed to be a ghost, but in this world, I am not sure what I am now. I can utilise the power of Heroic Spirits like Servants and fight, so that could be why I am here."

Rin took a while to take this in.

"So that strange form of Saber that I saw fighting Shinji's Servants, was that you?"

"Yes."

Rin gave a small smile.

"So you can do that too…"

Emu meanwhile was confused by Takeru's newfound visibility.

"Takeru, you can make her see you now?"

"Something happened. I was trying to make myself visible in the lower floor, but it kept failing. But now-"

"You are probably registered on the system as a Servant-like Entity." Rin cut in. "That was why you are now able to make yourself visible, like how Servants can materialise their spirit form. You started registering on my scanners as such the first time you and Saber merged in Shinji's Mayor Compounds. Beforehand you were invisible."

Then Saber also cut in, putting the conversation back on topic.

"Maestro, the reason you are alive is not only because of the Code Casts on your body, but also my affection towards you."

She smiled.

"You two are really close, aren't you?" Rin commented. "It's been a while since I've seen such a Master-Servant bond. And you two," gesturing at Takeru and Saber together, "fight together well. You held off three Berserker servants at once."

Saber sighed.

"We are comrades in arms with the desire of obtaining the Holy Grail. If we are not well-bonded, then what will happen?"

Emu and Takeru smiled together. Truly they were a strong team.

"You have a point." Rin said as she opened a canister and took out a pink vial. "I've also experienced it before." She tossed the vial to Saber.

"Drink it."

"Umu?" Saber looked at the bottle curiously.

"As for you, here." She tossed a flask of large white crystals at Emu on the bed. Emu grabbed it and looked at it closely. "Mana supply for Masters." Rin explained. "You're probably out of Mana from that stunt you pulled there."

So, am I supposed to eat these?

Putting that thought aside, he turned to another thing that Rin had mentioned.

"So, about the Resistance…"

"Right. Shinji's the city's mayor, and I'm a rebel." She took a swig from another vial, then put it down on the table. "You guys aren't backing out from the Holy Grail War, right?"

"Of course not." Takeru said. "We're trying to get out of here."

"Agreed." Saber added.

"Then you guys are my allies." Rin said, smiling. "After all, the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?"

"That's rather cynical…" Takeru murmured.

Rin ignored him.

"It looks like that we have formed an alliance." Saber said.

"Right. But first, I have to explain some things to prevent you two from getting arrested again for not knowing anything."

"This is the floor of cowards. Masters who fear the Holy Grail War would stop at this floor. They refuse to fight because they're scared. In other words, they're afraid of death."

Afraid of death…

"That makes sense." Takeru nodded in reply. "Fear of death is rather common. In fact, it is a human instinct."

He should know. He died multiple times beforehand, so he knew what it was like to fear death.

Emu knew too how scary death could be. Especially since he gave it to someone else…

Parado… I'm sorry…

"However, surviving while being passive is questionable. If that is the case, then isn't it better that we just lose?" Saber got up and put her hands on her hips. "Why do these things happen right now? What is the Moon Cell doing?"

" SE RA PH is no more." Rin replied in a low tone.

The other two turned towards Rin. "What?" they said in unison.

Rin sighed. She tapped a few commands in the air. Over the bed, the hologram of SE RA PH's seven Strata appeared, with error messages layered on top of each other simultaneously popping up as the levels loaded.

"Ever since the appearance of a big circle in the sky, Chakravartin, the rules of the Holy Grail War no longer applied."

A large golden wheel appeared over the layers, and small figures on said layers vanished.

"As a result, people die here and there."

She paused for a second, then continued.

"Each floor is independent from each other, and the battle royale between Masters are put on hold. This first floor is the most peaceful floor." The first floor enlarged as the others vanished. "There's already a Master who won the first round, but for some reason, he refused to ascend." She picked out a particular figure and placed him on the hologram. "Because Chakravatin overwrote the rules of SE RA PH, the only surviving Master in this floor is automatically assigned as the Floor Master." A small crown popped over the figure's head.

"Floor Master?" Saber asked, eyeing the figure curiously.

Emu couldn't help wondering if she was envious of the crown.

Come on, she's not that petty.

"Then, he used the remaining resources himself and singlehandedly rebuilt this floor. The pleasing atmosphere you saw in the city is the result."

A hologram model of the city rose from the disk that was the first floor.

"Other Masters came here after that, whether they came from the upper floors or the one who recently arrived. Then, without them realising, Servant marketplace became a thing. Therefore, Masters who just came here hit a dead end."

She snapped her fingers, and a row of figures fell like dominoes. Takeru did not like the implication of the metaphor. Neither did Emu.

"The one responsible for breaking SE RA PH was the large circle in the sky, but the one responsible for stopping the Holy Grail War is this floor's Floor Master."

Floor Master…

Shinji?

Takeru looked over at Emu and saw his hands clench.

"Therefore, to take care of this anomaly, I have been working hard. But lately the condition of the Angelica Cage has been strange…"

Rin trailed off, as she walked out onto a balcony and pointed up at the sky. Emu, Takeru and Saber walked outside and looked up. In the night sky, the golden circle, elaborate in its design like a Mandala, hovered, rotating slowly.

That circle…

"Chakravartin. I think that thing is trying to destroy SE RA PH on its own."

I saw that circle before…

"The bottom floor has been destroyed, right?" Takeru said. "Is it working its way up the ladder?"

"I would seem so. However, to ensure what's going on, we have to get to the next floor."

"No masters are willing to ascend to the next floor, is that right?" Saber asked.

"To be more accurate, they can't"

"Hmm?" Saber tilted her head sideways.

"But then, how are we going to get to the next floor?" Takeru asked.

"Well, according to the rules of the Holy Grail War, in order to ascend, there has to be a fight between Masters." Rin replied."

"Umu. If I may recall, that is the only condition when the Moon Mile Ladder can lower itself to Maestro."

"It works only one way. You can fall from above, but to ascend requires a ladder."

"If that is the case, then we need to find a Master." Emu muttered.

"There is one. You may know him very well." Rin said. Then, she paused.

"Matou Shinji, the floor Master who wants to kill you. He's still a full-fledged Master."

Takeru looked concerned.

"Do we have to kill him? Can't we convince him-"

"No." Emu muttered

Takeru and Rin turned towards him

"Emu..."

"I need to kill him."

Takeru's face turned to shock.

"But Emu, What about your doctor's oath?"

Emu grimaced. Takeru was right. It was against his oath. He'd already broken it before with the guards. He didn't want to break it again. But...

"I need to. Because of what he did to me."

The voices of vengeance in his head had been whispering in his ears ever since he woke up. He could no longer ignore them.

"He killed me..."

And as he said the last words, Emu felt his vision fading, and he collapsed of the floor.

"Emu!" Takeru ran to catch him before his head hit the floor.

"I sense doubt in your words"

He heard his own voice speaking in the darkness.

"Let me remind you again why you are fighting."

The scene changed. He was standing in that psychedelic corridor in the lower floor, confronted by Shinji. And like last time, Shinji was holding his knife.

"Come on, Emu, die for me!"

And before Emu could react, Shinji charged forwards and stabbed Emu repeatedly, again and again. Blood gushing out in the same pattern, the same shape and colour on the ground. And once again, Emu fell in pain and hit the ground

"Your 'friend' betrayed you. He left you for dead. We were the same."

Lying on the ground, Emu raised his head with immense effort.

The scene kept changing. Another corpse crucified upon a rock by swords. A boy on his knees, his head on the floor, knifes protruding from his back. A girl lying on a patterned marble floor, her chest ripped open, her entrails everywhere. Another girl, wrapped in chains, decapitated, her blood seeping out into a bucket below.

"This is us. This is who we were. This is who we are. However, we let you live. We gave you the chance to fight back. For you to accomplish your goal and ours."

And Emu felt his body rising, energy charging through his body, pure hatred coursing through his mind. The Zombie Gamer armour formed around him, black aura cloaking his body.

We are you. You are us. We fight for us. You will fight for us.

Emu woke up once again, half naked on the bed. However, sunlight was streaming through the windows, illuminating the room in a soft white glow. Emu, slightly calmed by the more peaceful atmosphere, got up and walked up the stairs to the roof.

As he stepped out onto the roof, he shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight. The skyline, so vibrant at night, seemed more relaxed and not as hectic.

To the left, he saw Tenkuji Takeru training with a stick. He was swinging it down on an imaginary enemy, then stepping forward, as if he was preparing to deflect a strike and countering with another. His face was diligent in his practice.

Facing the city skyline on the railings sat Saber, reclining as naturally as one would on a chair. Birds were perched on the floor and the railing, as if observing the red-dressed woman with interest in their eyes. A white pigeon flew down and landed on her outstretched arms. She smiled at it kindly, like a king to her subjects.

Then, having noticed Emu at the doorway, she turned to face him.

"I see you have woken up, Maestro."

Emu stepped forward, and the birds flapped their wings in flight, deserting the golden-haired swords maiden in droves. Takeru stopped his training and turned to look at Saber.

"I'm sorry" Emu said, bowing his head.

Saber smiled again. "What are you apologising for? We are to fight the Floor Master. Is it unusual for birds to run away from that tyrant?"

"But I thought it was Emu's approach that drove them away." Takeru noted.

"Umu. But they were already on nerve. It is only natural for them to fly."

"She's right. Besides, it's the only way to ascend."

Rin had materialised at the doorway, tapping in the air.

"We won't intrude, rather, we enter from the front door."

Takeru was concerned. "A direct attack. Isn't that-"

"That's good" Emu cut in.

Saber steeled her gaze.

"Are you ready, you two?"

"I'm ready" Takeru responded.

Emu looked around. Even though it was built on the corpses of Masters and Servants, it was still beautiful.

"It's a nice city, isn't it?"

But still. What else could he do. If he stayed here...

"I can't care about any of this. I have a job to do."

Emu gripped his hand, his Command Seals bulging under his skin.

"I... will continue the Holy Grail War."